Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Obama on Sunday in an interview with Tom Brokaw. The significance of this was hashed out yesterday: as a Republican retired Army general, Powell adds to Obama’s commander-in-chief cred.

For JCP, who is studying the Middle East at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, a different aspect of the endorsement stood out. JCP admired Powell’s emphatic support of Muslim Americans, and he’d like to hear something similar from Obama:

One of my problems with the Obama campaign has been their unwillingness to use some variation on this line to address the “Obama is a secret Muslim” smears. I understand at some tactical level why they don’t - they don’t want to muddy their message, and there are a lot more potentially-paranoid white Christian voters than Muslim voters - but it’s absolutely the right thing to do. And Powell is the most prominent person I’m aware of so far who’s said something to this effect.

He’s not quite dug himself out of the hole from his UN presentation, but this is a big step in the right direction.

Brokaw’s interview with Powell goes on to address the wisdom of that UN presentation and Powell’s 2000 endorsement of Bush/Cheney.

The answer to your question is no. Colin Powell did not say he endorsed any of those things.

If we begin with ACORN/fraudulent voting…let’s look back to 2000 when the winner of the popular vote did not make it to the presidency. There have been reports of fraudulent voting in Ohio in the ‘04 election. Elections are not pristine, they never have been. This country is too large and there is no possible way to have complete oversight of every vote.

Obama and Ayers are not friends. They are on the same board, and several Republicans are on that board as well. If you play the guilty-by-association game, you will find that Sarah Palin and McCain also know and have talked to some shady characters. Sarah herself has been found guilty of abusing her power, and her husband was a member of the Alaska Independence Party until 2002. McCain was caught up in the Keating Five scandal.